At the moment, the Padres find themselves in the midst of the franchise’s best run of success in its 56-year history. Nonetheless, their first five decades featured plenty of spectacular moments, too -- from brilliant defensive plays, to singular offensive performances to, well, just about everything Tony Gwynn ever did.
Here’s a subjective ranking of the franchise’s top 10 moments. (Note: For the purposes of this exercise, we’re only taking into account in-game moments, meaning Gwynn’s Hall induction is off the table. As is the hatching of the San Diego chicken.) Without further ado, here’s the list:
1. Gwynn’s 3,000th in Montreal
There really are too many Tony Gwynn moments to choose from. But this one ranks at the top as the culmination of everything Gwynn accomplished during his 20 seasons with the Padres. With a single off the Expos’ Dan Smith in Montreal, Gwynn became just the 22nd player to reach 3,000 hits, and just the 11th to do so with one franchise. In a wonderful bit of happenstance, No. 3,000 came on Aug. 6, 1999, the same day on the calendar as his 2,000th hit in 1993 … which happened to be his mother’s birthday. The game paused, and the Padres poured out of the dugout to celebrate Gwynn -- for hit No. 3,000 and, really, for everything he’d meant to the franchise as Mr. Padre.
2. Garvey’s NLCS walk-off
The Padres finally broke through in 1984, winning the National League West and reaching the postseason for the first time. But they left Chicago trailing the Cubs 2-0 in a best-of-five NL Championship Series, needing to win three straight in San Diego. Well, they won Game 3. Then, in Game 4 on Oct. 6, Steve Garvey authored the defining moment of that postseason run -- a walk-off two-run home run off Lee Smith at San Diego Stadium to cap a dramatic 7-5 victory. The Padres would rally to win Game 5 the following day, completing the series comeback and securing their first NL pennant.
3. Gwynn’s homer in the Bronx
Gwynn had to wait 14 years between trips to the World Series. Back on the sport’s biggest stage in 1998, he wasted no time making his presence felt. The Padres were up against a Yankees juggernaut. But in Game 1 on Oct. 17, Gwynn came out swinging. With the score tied at 2 in the fifth, Gwynn launched a two-run homer off the facing of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium. The Padres would lose the game late, and they lost the Series, too. But this was a statement from Gwynn, who had surely wondered if he’d ever get a chance to return to the World Series. He would later call that home run “the most exciting moment” of his 20-year career.
4. No-no Joe
By 2021 -- 8,205 games into their existence -- the Padres remained MLB’s only franchise without a no-hitter. Their history was littered with near misses and close calls. But the payoff was worth the wait. On April 9, 2021, at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Joe Musgrove held the Rangers hitless, recording the final out on a grounder to Ha-Seong Kim at shortstop. It was a masterpiece. Only a fourth-inning hit-by-pitch separated Musgrove from perfection. Making it sweeter: Musgrove was a San Diego native and a childhood Padres fan who could fully grasp the significance of the moment.
5. Cronenworth slays the dragon
In the midst of the thrilling summer of 2022, beloved Padres owner Peter Seidler called the Dodgers “that dragon up the freeway we’re trying to slay.” The Padres had lost all six regular-season series against their rivals from L.A., but the two sides met again in the NL Division Series, and San Diego won two of the first three games, setting up a dramatic Game 4 on Oct. 15. Trailing 3-0 in the seventh inning, the Padres staged an epic five-run rally capped by Jake Cronenworth’s two-out, two-run single off Alex Vesia. The Padres would win the game, 5-3, and the series, three games to one.
6. Hoffman’s record-breaker
On Sept. 24, 2006, in the final home game of the season, the Padres clung to a one-run lead when Trevor Hoffman entered to “Hells Bells” before a more-raucous-than-usual Petco Park. He retired the Pirates in order, moving past Lee Smith atop MLB’s all-time saves leaderboard with 479. Hoffman would finish his career with 601 saves. And even though Mariano Rivera broke that record in 2011, it remains an indelible moment in Padres history -- especially amid a tight pennant race that culminated in, to date, the club’s last division title.
7. Manny’s triple play
Honorable mention here to Ozzie Smith’s ridiculous barehanded play on April 20, 1978. It’s the best defensive play in Padres history, and maybe the best defensive play in MLB history. But, with due respect to the Wizard, that play didn’t clinch a playoff spot. Manny Machado’s incredible triple play at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 25, 2024, did exactly that. From start to finish, it’s just so smooth -- Machado to Cronenworth to Donovan Solano. It’s the only time in baseball history that a team has clinched a playoff spot with a triple play.
8. Brown outduels Johnson
You won’t find many better-pitched playoff games than Kevin Brown’s performance in Game 1 of the 1998 NLDS on Sept. 29. Brown outdueled Randy Johnson -- and struck out 16 Astros across eight scoreless innings. And Brown did so on the road, in a hostile environment, against a lineup that featured future Hall of Famers and perennial All-Stars. It set the Padres on course for a thrilling run through the 1998 postseason.
9. Chris Gwynn wins the West
There are so many contenders for places on this list -- including several dramatic postseason and division clinchers. (The Padres, it seems, have a knack for clinching in dramatic fashion.) But we’ll save a spot for what Tony Gwynn always called one of his favorite Padres moments. San Diego entered the final weekend of the 1996 season trailing the Dodgers by two games in the NL West heading into a three-game series in Los Angeles. The Padres won the first two, moving into a tie atop the division. Then, in the finale on Sept. 29, it was Gwynn’s brother, Chris, who delivered the game-winning -- and, ultimately NL West-clinching -- double in the top of the 11th inning.
10. Colbert’s fifth home run
You probably know that the record for home runs in a game is four. But Nate Colbert joined a far more exclusive club on Aug. 1, 1972, when he hit five in a single day across two games of a doubleheader -- against five different pitchers, no less. Colbert remains one of only two players in MLB history to accomplish the feat, joining the Cardinals' Stan Musial. As fate would have it, Colbert, a St. Louis native, was in attendance to see Musial’s feat in 1954 as an 8-year-old. Eighteen years later, Colbert took Atlanta’s Cecil Upshaw deep for his fifth home run, matching Musial and completing one of the greatest days at the plate for any hitter ever. “I just hit everything they threw me,” Colbert would say.